1) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an automated distributed system using audio and visual indicators to facilitate the retrieval of items, sometimes called stock keeping units (SKUs), that can be stored in uniquely identified locations within a facility such as a warehouse. Item locations for item (or SKU) retrieval and the subsequent locations for placement of items can be associated with uniquely identified receptacles.
2) Description of Related Art
In commercial transactions, typically goods do not pass directly from the manufacturer to the customer. For several reasons including geographic, volume efficiencies, product characteristics, and goods from many manufacturers can be transported from the respective manufacturer to a distribution center or warehouse where they are then stored and picked for subsequent distribution. Orders are provided to the distribution center or warehouse which are filled and transported to the ordering entity, whether retailer or end customer.
Filling orders from stored inventory requires steps that can include: locating the precise item in the storage facility, retrieving (or picking) the desired quantity of that item, and storing (or putting) the retrieved items in a designated container or receptacle. The basic steps may apply to a variety of situations in which items must be identified, selected, and distributed or placed in a second location. Frequently this process is generally described in terms of picking or order fulfillment.
Storage in a warehouse or other facility may be viewed as a nested or hierarchical arrangement with bays arranged along aisles, shelves located in or on a bay, locations in or on a shelf and items in or on a location. Thus, the physical location of a specific item could be an “address” in the storage facility comprising the aisle, the bay along that aisle, the shelf in a bay, and the location on the shelf or bay. So long as a protocol exists to associate a SKU with each unique combination of aisle, bay, shelf, or location, identification of a particular SKU is unnecessary to identify or characterize the item to be picked.
Historically, manual paper systems of pick and put have been improved and advanced with computerized and light assisted systems such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,775,588 and 8,019,463, incorporated by reference. These computer and electronic advancements have played a role in improvements to the warehousing order fulfillment industry as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,339 which describes a system that is characteristic of the status of some current pick and put technologies for many warehouse and other storage—distribution situations. While using a punch-card system, this reference provides for a put-to-light process with a separate light system wired to individual containers or receptacles. Major deficiencies of this system include the requirement of hard wire communications of the light systems, communications through the card reader to a central computer, and the fact that overall efficiency and performance of the system degrades as the number of lights increases thereby preventing advantageous scalability of these systems. The system has virtually no fault-tolerance since failure of the central computer causes the entire system to fail. Further, changing the configuration of the system for dynamic slotting is challenging.
Radio communications have been applied to inventory related selection applications such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,698. This reference describes a system of radio transmitters positioned throughout a supermarket with mobile receivers positioned on shopping carts commonly used by customers. When a receiver is within a limited range of any specific transmitter, an exclusive link is established whereby the transmitter sends to the receiver a specific advertising message calling attention to a “bargain” product at a specific nearby location. U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,800 discloses a route delivery system utilizing both local area network and wide area network radio frequencies to communicate inventory data between an end delivery point and a stocked delivery vehicle, and between the vehicle and a base office to minimize the number of actual visits a service person must make to deliver the necessary inventory items to a specific end point.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,505,473 and 5,877,962 disclose a computer-based system to facilitate placement of articles picked by an attendant from inventory storage shelves and deposited in delivery containers mounted on a cart. A scanner mounted on the cart is used to read codes on either the location or item to be picked to validate the designated pick.
However, of the above attempts to improve order fulfillment, none specifically addresses the needs of slotting. Slotting traditionally has been described as the physical placement of products within a warehouse or other storage facility designed to maximize the use of a facility's available space by improved storage and picking efficiency while reducing handling costs. Slotting is a process that can reduce picking time by grouping commonly or frequently ordered products, sometimes called high velocity SKUs, together to reduce the travel time during picking. SKUs can be designated high velocity when they are in high demand, or for other reasons. Slotting can include the goal of optimizing travel time by placing products near the location where picking starts or ends and balancing workload across multiple workers. The decision concerning where to place items in a facility can be based on a number of factors such as item size, historical demand, promotional campaigns, or the number of orders for which the product is picked. Highly accessed products are sometimes placed in prime locations that have the least travel time and best ergonomics (e.g. those associated with reaching). Seasonal products are often moved to more easily accessible areas during high volume seasons and into less accessible areas in off-seasons. The quantity of the pick can also affect slotting decisions. For example, depending on order contents, locations may be slotted based on the customer demand for full vs. partial pallets, full vs. partial cases or single units and the like. The product characteristics can be used to make slotting decision such as size (e.g. large items packed into boxes first that often leads to better packing densities and reduces damage to other fragile products later packed in the same boxes), special handling, secure storage, environmental controls, or material handling equipment needs. Slotting products that may be used or ordered together can improve efficiency. In some cases, developing location layouts that support truck-loading sequences or store delivery routes can improve efficiencies. Slotting can require the physical movement of an item in a warehouse, or other facility, which interrupts the picking process and can reduce order fulfillment rates and efficiencies, both of which can result in increased costs. Slotting can be a labor-intensive activity due to the process of physically relocating items within a facility as needed. The process of slotting can negatively impact the picking process since picking activities are generally slowed or halted while products are being relocated. Some slotting methodologies or algorithms use past demand as a predictor of future demand. However, predictability of item movement can be compromised when slow moving products are selected for rapid liquidation such as by putting them on sale. In this case, slow moving, unpopular items can become high velocity items causing historical demand to be a poor predictor of product popularity. Because of this and other disadvantages, many companies elect not to slot their products or to slot them infrequently.
One way of reducing travel time for product retrieval in a large warehouse storage area is to gather product in bulk for a large quantity of orders, using a single trip through the large warehouse storage area, and distributing those products into cells in a “put wall.” A “put wall” can be a 3-dimensional matrix of cells, possibly containing totes or shipping containers, where each cell is used to store products gathered in bulk to comprise all or part of an order. A process to “put” the products into the cells sometimes involves scanning of a SKU bar code on one of the products, illuminating lighted numeric displays adjacent to one of more cells, and distributing multiple units of the product into these cells according to the quantities displayed or other methods. After the ordered quantity of each product for a box has been placed in a cell, the display adjacent to the cell, or a different display on the other end of the cell, if the cell is open on both ends, can be illuminated with a message or code indicating the cell has been filled with all required products for all or part of an order. In response to this message or code, the contents of the cell can be unloaded into a shipping container (if the cell was not loaded with a shipping container earlier) and the box can then be moved to the next step in order fulfillment such as taping, labeling or shipping. One of the problems with this process is that each product is “touched” multiple time—once when the product is picked, once when the product is distributed into put wall cells, and once when the product is removed from put wall cells and placed into shipping containers.
A stationary unit can be a bay unit or a digitally transformable mobile unit in a bay configuration.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a pick/put system that can use mobile units transformable between stationary units to provide for efficient pick and put functionality.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a pick put system with transformable mobile units that do not necessarily require relocating popular and/or unpopular items.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an efficient system to consolidate products gathered from fast velocity and slow velocity areas by dynamically transforming mobile units into stationary units such as “put walls.”
Another objective to the present invention is to provide a pick/put system that can use dynamic put walls to reduce travel distance and time for picking products by using digitally transformable mobile units that can be transformed into stationary units (e.g. put walls) to reduce the number of times a product is touched.